I.

Introduction

Kenya, republic in Africa, a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, bounded on the north by Sudan and Ethiopia, on the east by Somalia and the Indian Ocean, on the south by Tanzania, and on the west by Lake Victoria and Uganda. Kenya has an area of 582,646 sq km (224,961 sq mi). The capital city is Nairobi.

II.

Land and Resources

Kenya falls into several well-defined topographical zones extending from the Indian Ocean coast upward to lofty mountain ranges reaching more than 3,048 m (10,000 ft) above sea level. From low coastal plains the terrain rises gradually to a broad, arid plateau that covers much of the north and east. In the central area there are great volcanic mountain chains, of which the principal peak is Mount Kenya (5,199 m/17,058 ft). Further west, the immense depression of the Rift Valley is demarcated by a succession of steep cliffs.

A.

Rivers and Lakes

The chief rivers of Kenya are the T’ana and Galana (known as the Athi in its upper course). Kenya contains almost all of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf) and a small portion of Lake Victoria.

B.

Climate

Kenya is divided by the equator into two almost equal parts. The region north of the equator is hot and receives comparatively little rain. The southern region falls into three zones. The coast is humid, with a mean annual temperature ranging from about 24.4° C (76° F) in June and July to about 27.8° C (82° F) in February, March, and April; the highlands are relatively temperate; and the Lake Victoria region is tropical. The rainy seasons occur from October to December and from April to June.

C.

Natural Resources

Kenya’s main resource is its land, of which about 11 per cent is suitable for agriculture. About one third of this is arable; the remainder is used mainly for grazing. The northern region, covering two thirds of Kenya, is mostly desert or semi-desert.

D.

Plants and Animals

The plant life of Kenya is diverse. Along the coast are forests containing palm, mangrove, teak, copal, and sandalwood trees. Forests of baobab, euphorbia (see Spurge), and acacia trees cover the lowlands to an elevation of approximately 915 m (3,000 ft). Extensive tracts of savannah (grassland), interspersed with groves of acacia and papyrus, characterize the terrain from about 915 to 2,745 m (3,000 to 9,000 ft). The principal species in the dense rainforest of the eastern and south-eastern mountain slopes are camphor and bamboo. The alpine zone (above about 3,550 m/11,000 ft) contains large plants of the Senecio and Lobelia genera.

Kenya is renowned for the great variety of its wildlife, especially the big game animals associated with the African savannah. The major species are elephant, rhinoceros, zebra, giraffe, lion, and other large cats. Many of these are protected in national parks and game reserves, but poaching has severely reduced the number of large mammals, such as the elephant and rhinoceros. Kenya abounds in birds and reptiles, the latter including the python and cobra.

E.

Environmental Concerns

With one of the highest population growth rates in the world, Kenya has an increasing need for firewood and agricultural land. Only about 7 per cent (1997) of the land is arable, although some of the most productive farming in Africa takes place in the Kenyan Highlands. Increased use of pesticides and fertilizers has led to significant water pollution. Soil erosion and desertification occur in some areas. Deforestation is a major problem, but about 10 million trees have been planted over the past two decades with the help of private groups and tree nursery programmes. About 2.3 per cent (1995) of the country consists of woodlands, although only about 3 per cent is covered with natural moist forest. Water contamination is a serious problem—only about 30 per cent (1990-1998) of the rural population has access to safe drinking water.

Kenya is perhaps best known for its game parks, which attract large numbers of tourists and revenue. Conservation of wildlife within reserves has thus received high priority. Currently, nearly 12 per cent (1992) of the total land is classified as parks, game reserves, and other managed areas, although only 6.2 per cent (1997) is strictly protected. At least 32 endemic species are also endangered. Threatened habitats include the slopes of Mount Kenya and coastal forests. Efforts are under way to restore the endangered African elephant and black rhino populations, and an aggressive campaign has been waged against poachers. Five biosphere reserves have been recognized under the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Man and the Biosphere Program. Kenya has ratified international agreements on biodiversity, climate change, endangered species, marine dumping, marine life conservation, ozone layer, ship pollution, and wetlands. Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2004. She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement, an organization that has planted 30 million trees in Africa to help stem forest loss.

III.

Population

Almost 99 per cent of Kenya’s population is black African. The country also has small numbers of Asians, Europeans, and Arabs. The black Africans are divided into more than 30 ethnic groups belonging to four linguistic families—Bantu, Nilotic, Paranilotic, and Cushitic. The largest ethnic groups are the Bantu-speaking Kikuyu (22 per cent of the population), Luhya (14 per cent), and Kamba (11 per cent); the Nilotic-speaking Luo (13 per cent); and the Paranilotic-speaking Kalenjin (12 per cent).

A.

Population Characteristics

The population of Kenya (2007 estimate) is 36,913,721, giving an overall population density of about 65 people per sq km (168 per sq mi). The population was increasing at the very rapid rate of 3.5 per cent annually in the early 1980s; the rate in 2007 was 2.80 per cent. About 58 per cent of the people live in rural areas (2005 estimate). Average life expectancy in 2007 was 55.2 years for males and 55.4 years for females. Collecting population statistics has been complicated by the large-scale movement of nomadic groups and of the influx of Somali refugees across the border.

B.

Principal Cities

Nairobi, with a population of 2,143,020 (1999), is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The main seaport is Mombasa, population 660,800 (1999), built mostly on an offshore island of the same name. Other important cities are Kisumu, 194,390 (1999), a port city on Lake Victoria and capital of Nyanza province; Nakuru, 219,366 (1999), the capital of Rift Valley Province; and Eldoret, 137,016 (1999), a rail centre north-east of Kisumu.

C.

Religion

The population of Kenya is about 38 per cent Protestant, 28 per cent Roman Catholic, and 6 per cent Muslim. The remaining people are largely followers of various traditional religions.

D.

Language

Swahili (also called Kiswahili; 131,000 speakers), a Niger-Congo language, and English are the official languages of Kenya, although English is spoken mainly as a second language; 59 other languages are spoken. Nearly all the African ethnic groups in Kenya have their own distinct languages. Also from the Niger-Congo language family, the following are widely used: Gikuyu (5,350,000 speakers), Luyia (3,400,000), Kamba (2,448,000), Gusii (1,582,000), and Meru (1,305,000). Kalenjin (2,458,000) and Luo (3,185,000), from the Nilo-Saharan family, are also spoken widely. (See also African Languages.)

E.

Education

Education is not compulsory in Kenya, but the first eight years of primary school education are provided free by the government. In 1993 some 5.4 million pupils attended about 15,800 primary schools with a teaching staff of more than 173,000, and some 517,500 students attended more than 2,600 secondary and teacher-training schools staffed by some 18,400 teachers.

Kenya has seven university-level public institutions: the University of Nairobi (founded 1956) and Kenyatta University (1965), both in Nairobi; Egerton University (1939), in Nakuru; Moi University (1984), in Eldoret; the Jomo Kenyatta University College of Agriculture and Technology (1981) in Nairobi; Maseno University (1990) in Maseno; and the specialist International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) (1970) in Nairobi. Specialized colleges included Mombasa Polytechnic (1948) in Mombasa; and the Kenya Conservatoire of Music (1944), Kenya Polytechnic (1961), and Strathmore College (1960) in Nairobi. Some 88,000 students were enrolled at higher education level. Adult literacy in 2005 was 86.9 per cent. In 2002–2003, 7.1 per cent of the country’s gross national product (GNP) was spent on education.

F.

Culture

Many of Kenya’s foremost cultural institutions are in either Nairobi or Mombasa. In Nairobi are the National Museums of Kenya, which include exhibits on natural history and geology; the Kenya National Archives; and the McMillan Memorial Library, with a special collection of Africana. In Mombasa is the Fort Jesus Museum, a history museum housed in a 16th-century Portuguese fort. The Kitale Museum features displays on scientific and historical topics.

IV.

Economy

In 2004 Kenya’s GNP was about US$16,063 million (World Bank estimate), equivalent to US$540 per head. After services, agriculture, including forestry and fishing, is the most important economic sector, accounting for 27 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005. Tourism is a vital part of the economy; mining activity is on a relatively small scale. Kenya’s estimated national operating budget in 2002 included expenditure of US$2,717 million and revenue of approximately US$2,401 million.

After World War II Kenya experienced one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world because of large-scale foreign investments and the influx of European management and technical personnel. The colonial government’s policy was to leave economic growth to private enterprise. After independence, Kenya joined with Tanzania and Uganda in 1967 to form the East African Community, which aimed to further the development of a common market in goods and services among the member states; the community was dissolved in 1977 but revived again in 2001.

Following a 3.3 per cent increase in output in 1994, the economy continued to grow in 1995 with decreasing inflation and a 5 per cent growth in GDP. Chief factors hindering prosperity are one of the world’s highest rates of population growth and withdrawal of donor aid from 1991 until 1993, pending economic and political reforms. In February 1996 the World Bank (see International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) approved a loan of US$216 million that had been withheld since 1994, in response to the beginnings of economic reforms made prior to elections in 1997.

A.

Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing

Although only about 4 per cent of the land is suitable for arable production, the Kenyan agricultural system is highly diversified, producing almost every basic foodstuff. Potatoes, coffee, tea, cotton, cereal grains, beans, peanuts, and tobacco are grown in the highlands, the prime agricultural area, while sugar cane, maize, cassava, pineapples, sisal, cotton, and cashew nuts are grown on the coast and in the lowlands. Coffee, tea, pyrethrum, sisal, and horticultural products are the most important export crops.

Livestock breeding and dairy farming are important to the Kenyan economy; in 2005 Kenya had about 13 million head of cattle, 13.9 million goats, 10 million sheep, and 26 million chickens. In 1995 dairy production included about 4,000 tonnes of butter (including ghee, a semi-fluid clarified butter) and about 1.9 million tonnes of cow’s milk.

Kenya’s forests produce mostly hardwoods (musheragi, muiri, mukeo, camphor, musaise) and some softwoods (pids, cedar, cypress). Wattle bark, used in tanning, is an important export item. Output of timber was 27.7 million cu m (978 million cu ft) a year in 1994. Commercial fishing, primarily on inland waterways and lakes, is sufficient to satisfy the local market. The annual catch in 2004 was about 127,902 tonnes.

B.

Mining

Kenya has few developed mineral resources, and mining plays only a small role in its economy. Mineral production in Kenya includes soda ash, salt, fluorspar, iron ore, gold, garnets, and limestone. Large deposits of lead and silver have been discovered near Mombasa.

C.

Manufacturing

Kenya has one of East Africa’s most diversified manufacturing sectors. However, it is still on a small scale and consists mainly of food- and raw-material-processing for local consumption. Manufacturing amounts to around 12 per cent of GDP. Flour-milling, cement-manufacturing, and oil-refining are among the country’s leading industries.

D.

Tourism

Kenya relies on tourism as its greatest source of foreign exchange earnings. In 1994 Kenya attracted over 800,000 visitors annually, yielding revenue of more than US$421 million. Earnings from tourism dipped in 1993 and 1995 because of growing violence and unrest. Tourists primarily visit Kenya’s national parks and game reserves to see and photograph the wildlife; many also enjoy the beaches along the Indian Ocean coastline. Tsavo National Park and Marsabit National Reserve are the country’s two largest parks; the Maasai Mara park, in south-west Kenya, is probably the best known.

E.

Energy

Since World War II hydroelectric power projects have been developed to meet the increasing demand for power. In 1993 Kenya had an installed electricity-generating capacity of about 810,000 kW, two thirds from hydroelectric power stations. Annual production of electricity in 2003 was approximately 4.3 billion kWh.

F.

Currency and Banking

The monetary unit is the Kenya shilling of 100 cents (70.60 shillings equalled US$1; early 2007). The bank of issue is the Central Bank of Kenya.

G.

Commerce and Trade

Kenya usually spends considerably more each year on imports than it earns from exports; in 2004 annual imports were valued at US$4,566 million and exports at US$2,686 million. Exports went principally to Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uganda. Major exports include coffee (the largest cash crop), tea, petroleum products, canned pineapple, hides and skins, sisal, soda ash, and pyrethrum extract (used in insecticides). Imports came mainly from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan, and include crude petroleum, industrial machinery, motor vehicles, iron and steel, agricultural implements, pharmaceuticals, and fertilizers.

H.

Labour

In 1994 about 1.47 million people were employed in Kenya’s formal economy; more than 50 per cent worked in service industries, about 18 per cent in agriculture and forestry, and about 18 per cent in manufacturing and construction. The vast majority of the country’s estimated 10.3 million economically active people, however, works outside the formal sector, either as subsistence farmers and herders, or within the informal sector of small-scale traders, craftspeople, and entrepreneurs.

I.

Transport

Kenya is served by the Kenya Railways Corporation, which operates about 1,917 km (1,191 mi) of track; the domestic network links into the Ugandan and Tanzanian systems. Kenya has a road network of about 63,942 km (39,731 mi); 12 per cent of this is paved. In 2000 there were 8 passenger cars per 1,000 people. Mombasa is the chief port and serves Uganda and Ethiopia as well as Kenya. Steamer services are maintained on Lake Victoria, with connections to Albert and Kyoga lakes in Uganda. The Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi is a major terminus for Kenya Airways, which has been privatized, and other international airlines. Moi International Airport is located at Mombasa.

J.

Communications

Kenya has 4 daily newspapers with a combined circulation of around 263,000. Leading dailies include two English-language newspapers, the Daily Nation and The Standard, and a Swahili-language daily, Taifa Leo, all published in Nairobi. The Kenya Broadcasting Corporation operates radio and six television stations with English-, African-, and Asian-language programmes; there are also commercial radio and television stations. Kenya has a well-developed telecommunications system with around 8 telephones per 1,000 people, 7 million radios, and 767,530 television receivers.

V.

Government

Kenya is governed under the constitution adopted at independence in 1963. Amendments enacted in 1964 made the country a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. It has a modified parliamentary form of government. The constitution was last amended in 1997.

A.

Executive and Legislature

Executive authority in Kenya is exercised by a president—who is both chief of state and head of government—elected for a five-year term by popular vote. A vice-president and a Cabinet are appointed by the president from members of the unicameral National Assembly (Bunge), the legislative branch of government. The assembly consists of 210 directly elected members plus 12 members who are nominated by the president; the speaker and attorney-general are ex-officio members. Under a power-sharing agreement signed in 2008 a coalition government was formed and the newly created post of prime minister instituted.

B.

Political Parties

The Kenya African National Union (KANU) was the nation’s sole legal political party from 1982 to 1991, though Kenya had, in practice, been a one-party state since 1969. The 2007 election saw President Kibaki’s Party of National Unity lose to the Orange Democratic Movement.

C.

Judiciary

The Kenyan judicial system consists of two major courts and several lesser tribunals. The major courts are the Kenya court of appeal, with a chief justice and five associate judges; and the high court of Kenya, with seven judges. The lesser tribunals include the resident magistrates’ courts; the district magistrates courts; and the qadi courts, which determine questions of Islamic law.

D.

Local Government

Kenya is divided into seven administrative provinces—Central, Coast, Eastern, North-Eastern, Nyanza, Rift Valley, and Western—as well as the Nairobi area district. Local government matters are handled by provincial advisory councils, whose members are appointed by the president. The provinces are broken down into some 40 districts, all of which have local councils with administrative functions. The higher local authorities are divided into two categories, municipalities and county councils. Below these are various urban councils, township authorities, area councils, and local councils. Although all these groups are responsible to the central government, considerable local autonomy is encouraged within the groups. Many of the councils raise their own revenues to finance public health measures, road and construction projects, and social welfare schemes. They also contribute revenue to local education costs. The Nairobi area is not included in any other district or province but has a special status of its own.

E.

Health and Welfare

In 2004 there were 7,576 people per doctor; around 7 per cent of government expenditure was spent on health care. The country had an infant mortality rate of 57 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2007.

F.

Defence

In 2004 the Kenyan armed forces had a total strength of about 24,120. The navy, which is based in Mombasa, had about 1,620 officers and ratings who operated coastal patrol boats on Lake Victoria and the Indian Ocean. The air force, established in 1964, had 2,500 personnel, with 20 combat aircraft and 24 armed helicopters. The land army had 20,000 personnel. Military service is voluntary. In 2003 Kenya spent US$237 million (1.8 per cent of its GDP) on defence.

G.

International Organizations

Kenya is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the African Union.

VI.

History

Fossil remains suggest the presence of early hominids in Kenya between 2 million and 3 million years ago. Today, Kenya is an ethnic and cultural melting pot, the result of incursions by different groups over the past 1,500 years. Before ad 1000 East Africa was invaded by Nilotic clans from the north. The invaders, called Hima, were aristocratic pastoralists who introduced cattle-herding and developed powerful kingdoms.

A.

Bantu and Maasai Migrations

Bantu invasions after the 14th century forced most of the Nilotes into what is today Uganda, or Tanzania. The Luo remained, and became absorbed into Bantu culture. The Bantu invaded Kenya by two routes. The Kamba and Kikuyu took the northerly way from west of the great lakes area and settled in the highlands. A more southerly route was followed by the Taita and other coastal Bantu. Both these groups were organized into clans, with no centralized social or political institutions. Even the Kikuyu, the most numerous of the Bantu groups, remained a clan-based society. No large, powerful Bantu kingdoms ever emerged in Kenya.

The soil in the uplands was fertile, and agriculture flourished there. The Bantu, using the terrain of the Rift Valley, the valleys and hills of the highlands, and the Aberdare Mountains, defended themselves from later invaders and were able to retain their political systems.

In the 17th century another group of invaders came to Kenya from the region north of Lake Turkana (Lake Rudolf). These were the Nilo-Hamitic Maasai with their cattle herds. Scorning the uplands for the plains of central and southern Kenya, they clashed with the Bantu only where these regions met. Their society was also based on clans, and although the warrior, or muran, was a dominant figure, the Maasai never had large armies. Like the Bantu, they presented few military problems to the Europeans who divided up East Africa in the 19th century.

B.

The Zenj States and the Portuguese

After the 11th century, the coastal areas were dominated by traders and settlers from southern Arabia. They established the various Zenj city-states, so called because in Arabic the country was known as the land of the Zenj, or “black people”. The most important of these settlements in Kenya were Malindi and Mombasa. The Muslim entrepreneurs were content to control the interior trade, and their cities became important ports in the Indian Ocean trade system. In time a composite Arabic-Bantu culture developed along the coast, exemplified by the hybrid Swahili language, which became the trading language of East Africa.

Generally independent of one another, the Zenj states were from time to time dominated by powerful non-African maritime empires. One of these was the sultanate of Oman and Muscat, which for centuries vied with the Europeans for supremacy along the coast. The Portuguese, following Vasco da Gama’s discovery of the sea route to India in 1498, attempted to monopolize all Indian Ocean trade, and for more than a century, despite resistance, they dominated the Zenj states. Fort Jesus, a massive 16th-century fort in Mombasa, stands as a memorial to their former power on the Kenya coast. After the Dutch and the English wrested the trade from the Portuguese early in the 17th century, the Zenj states regained their independence.

C.

The Omani Dynasty

In the early 19th century Sultan Sayyid Said of Oman conquered all the city-states north of Cape Delgado. Ruling over a commercial empire, he did not try to dominate the Bantu clans in the interior, and eventually moved his capital to the island of Zanzibar in present-day Tanzania. The clove plantations on Zanzibar and the oil-palm groves at Mombasa, developed by Said, needed a large labour force. This need was met by the slave trade. Controlled from Mombasa and Zanzibar, the trade extended into Africa’s interior as far as Zaïre. Swahili slavers sometimes raided weak Bantu clans, but they generally traded for slaves with the stronger African states.

The cruelty of the slave trade revived European interest in Kenya. The British consul in Zanzibar took the lead in the anti-slave-trade movement. By the 1850s, in return for guarantees of continued protection, the sultan had signed treaties limiting the scope of the trade. Finally, in 1873, fearing that the British would support a European takeover of his empire, Said’s son Barghash agreed to abolition.

D.

British Rule

The British consul from 1873 to 1886 was John Kirk, who advised Sultan Barghash to raise an army and annex most of eastern Kenya and Tanzania. Refusing this advice, the Sultan was helpless in the face of European territorial ambitions. German imperialists led the way, and their claims were upheld at the Congress of Berlin. In 1886 the British recognized the German sphere of influence over coastal Tanganyika (part of present-day Tanzania), retaining Kenya for themselves.

A further territorial division took place in 1890. For a time British interests in Kenya were maintained by the Imperial British East Africa Company, but in 1896 the British Foreign Office assumed direct control, mainly because of the decision to build a railway from Mombasa to Lake Victoria. British annexation was not seriously contested by any of the Bantu or Maasai. In 1902 all Kenya became a dependency under the Colonial Office, and was the British base of operations in the protracted East African campaign against the Germans during World War I.

The type of government established in Kenya was the Crown Colony system. The governor and the secretariat were appointed from London. Most Africans continued to be ruled by their own leaders under the general guidance and supervision of a British district officer. Tribal lands were guaranteed, but all unoccupied territory became Crown land. Even before 1900 some white colonists had recognized the economic value of the highlands and had begun to settle the fertile lands adjacent to Nairobi.

By the end of World War I there were more than 9,000 Europeans in Kenya, and much of the highlands had been reserved for continual white settlement. The government, though claiming to be concerned with “native paramountcy”, in practice favoured the white minority. The depression of the 1930s and a rapidly expanding population showed the inadequacy of the land reserved for Africans. Unable to sustain themselves by farming, many migrated to the towns in search of work. A nationalist organization, the Kenya African Union (KAU), was formed in 1944 and campaigned for the redistribution of land. In 1947 Jomo Kenyatta, a prominent Kikuyu, became its leader.

E.

The Mau Mau Uprising

In 1952 a Kikuyu secret society, the Mau Mau, began an uprising against colonial rule. In practice, however, much of the violence was directed against other Kikuyu. During the next four years, 13,000 Kikuyu were killed compared with just over 30 Europeans. Although the uprising did not spread to other indigenous groups, it cost the government dearly in security operations and caused a political crisis. KAU was banned and its leader, Kenyatta, was imprisoned for alleged complicity in Mau Mau.

However, the colonial authorities had to face the inevitability of change. By 1956, when the violence ended, they had abandoned their pro-settler policies. Africans were beginning to be involved in government, in a process—like that already taking place in West Africa—which would lead to majority rule and independence. A new African political party, the Kenya African National Union (KANU), was formed and won a majority of seats in a pre-independence general election held in 1961. However, KANU refused to form a government while Kenyatta was still in prison. Released in 1961 he led the party to a decisive election victory in 1963. Kenya became an independent state on December 12, 1963.

F.

Independence

Despite the fears of white settlers, African rule proved moderate, pro-Western, and progressive. Although Kenya by the late 1960s was in practice a one-party state, considerable freedom was permitted within the party, and the government seldom misused its powers. Land redistribution—though biased in favour of the Kikuyu—quietened much of the clamour of Kenya’s traditional leaders. Kenya became a republic in 1964, with Kenyatta as its first president.

G.

Kenyatta’s Rule

Kenyatta sought to maintain good relations with Kenya’s neighbours although this was difficult at times, especially with the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda. The East African Community, an economic union of the three countries established in 1967 and considered a promising start for political unification, was gradually phased out. In the early 1980s the community’s former members considered reviving it, and finally did so in January 2001.

Kenyatta’s moderate, stable government attracted large-scale foreign investment. A new industrial area was established near Thika, and central Nairobi was modernized. The tourist industry, based on Kenya’s great national wildlife reserves, expanded rapidly to become the single most important source of foreign exchange. Kenyatta was recognized at the time of his death in 1978 as Mzee, (the wise old one), not only by his own people but by a wide array of world leaders.

H.

Kenya After Kenyatta

Fears of possible civil war between Luo and Kikuyu groups when Kenyatta died proved unfounded, and his successor, Daniel Arap Moi—a Kalenjin—initially followed the same moderate political and economic policies. However, in June 1982 he made Kenya officially a one-party state. Two months later an attempt by air force units to oust him was crushed by loyal troops. As the 1980s progressed, the government faced a rising tide of criticism from both inside and outside the country. Many of Moi’s leading Kenyan critics were jailed.

I.

Ethnic Violence

In late 1991 the world’s major lending institutions and several Western governments suspended economic aid to Kenya, as a way of forcing Moi’s government into political and economic reforms. Opposition parties were subsequently legalized and Kenya’s first multi-party elections for 26 years were held in December 1992. Moi and KANU were returned with a comfortable majority. However, the election—in which all sides capitalized on tribal loyalties—unleashed a torrent of ethnic violence, much of it directed against the once-privileged Kikuyu. Tens of thousands of people had been driven from their homes and hundreds killed by the middle of the decade. At the same time, the government continued to harass opposition groups and harsh economic reforms were introduced at the insistence of aid donors. They included a welcome crackdown on corruption, but also led to spiralling inflation, increased unemployment, and massive cutbacks in public services.

The outcome of the election held in 1997 was a predictable victory for Moi, following disputes between the opposition parties. This led to a breakdown of their alliance in November. After a controversial presidential election in December, marred by delays in vote registrations and counting, the ruling party’s majority in parliament was much reduced.

J.

Flooding, Drought, Terrorism, and Corruption

In 1998 at least 86 people died in floods along a stretch of the highway between Nairobi and Mombasa. Agriculture was badly affected, with sugar cane and wheat left rotting in flooded fields. Tourism was under threat as a result of the flooding on roads cutting off tourist lodges and camps, and also by an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever spreading from the north-east to the central provinces.

In February 1998 more than 300,000 people, mostly Kikuyus or members of other tribes associated with the opposition, were forced out of Rift Valley province by apparently orchestrated violence. This stemmed from unresolved land claims dating from the colonial period and has allowed KANU, the ruling party, to consolidate its power, particularly in Rift Valley province, which has the largest number of parliamentary seats. US Embassy buildings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were bombed in August, with responsibility for the attacks being attributed to the terrorist group Al-Qaeda, led by Osama bin Laden. The blast killed some 240 people and injured more than 5,000 others. Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan was captured in Nairobi by Turkish commandos in February 1999, and returned to Turkey to be tried on murder and terrorist charges.

In an effort to achieve political stability, President Moi appointed Richard Leakey, a white palaeoanthropologist and politician, as head of Kenya's civil service, in July 1999. Leakey had founded an opposition party, Safina, in 1995. In September Moi attempted to streamline his government, reducing the number of ministers from 27 to 15. Presidential powers were, however, considerably reduced by the act of the National Assembly passed in November.

The economic situation in Kenya was burdened in 2000 by power and water shortages as a result of a serious drought, the worst for 30 years. The late onset of the rainy season did little to alleviate the problem. In addition, foreign aid was hard to come by; many donors were being deterred by Kenya’s deteriorating corruption record. Further trouble broke out when Moi announced that large tracts of forestland would be allocated to squatters and local authorities. Protesters foresaw increased environmental problems and opportunities for exploitation.

In January 2001, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania finally succeeded in reviving the East African Community. This economic grouping, last in existence in 1977, aimed to improve trade between the three countries and encourage investment in the area as a whole. Further efforts were made to establish stronger links between Kenya and its neighbours at a meeting between Moi and President al-Bashir of Sudan, where they called for an East African body to help bring peace to the region.

In March 2001 the IMF extended its withholding of loans from Kenya, declaring it would not resume payments until it was satisfied that more progress had been made to institute privatization schemes and stamp out corruption. Around the same time, Richard Leakey and three other top civil servants left the anti-corruption team, which, it had been hoped, would entice back foreign investment. Leakey appeared in court charged with conspiring to pervert the course of justice in April 2001.

Government changes in June 2001 saw Kenya’s first coalition government in which the leader of the opposition, Raila Odinga of the NDP, was appointed minister of energy. Early in 2002, Moi and Odinga, the leaders of KANU and the NDP respectively, proposed a merging of their parties in time for the forthcoming elections. In a landmark deal that was agreed the following month, over 200 Maasai and Samburu herdsmen accepted compensation from Britain for damages caused by abandoned munitions left behind in the country by the British Army. It is believed that various similar claims from elsewhere in the world will follow. In a terrorist attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa in November 2002, 15 people were killed; the attack was purportedly organized by Al-Qaeda.

The December 2002 parliamentary elections saw a landslide victory for the National Rainbow Coalition (NARC) with 125 of the seats in the 210-seat assembly. KANU took 64 seats and the FORD-People party gained 14 seats.

K.

Kenya After Moi

Under the rules of the constitution, Moi was barred from entering the presidential election process also held in December 2002. The KANU candidate Uhuru Kenyatta, son of the former president, took 31.2 per cent of the vote, but was beaten convincingly into second place by Mwai Kibaki of the NARC, who gained 62.3 per cent. A former vice-president of Kikuyu origin, Kibaki was sworn in on December 30, pledging to end corruption in Kenya. In response, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to continue with loans to the country.

In January 2003 the government set up an anti-corruption commission. Anti-corruption police investigating a banking scandal questioned former president Moi in June that year. In August Vice-President Michael Kijana Wamalwa, who had been an important mediator in disputes within the ruling NARC, died in London. The following month, the NDP called on President Kibaki to honour a pre-election pledge to create a post of executive prime minister and appoint NDP leader Raila Odinga to it. Continuing in-fighting within the ruling coalition led President Kibaki to take drastic action in December 2003, when he declared the constituent parties of the coalition to be dissolved (the coalition kept all its seats in the National Assembly, however).

In November 2003 the IMF resumed lending to Kenya in recognition of the country’s efforts in fighting corruption. Former president Moi was granted immunity from prosecution for corruption in December that year.

In February 2004 an investigation into the murder in 1990 of a former foreign minister Robert Ouko started; former president Moi and Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott were expected to be questioned.

President Kibaki announced a national disaster in the summer of 2004 after crop failures and a drought contributed to a food crisis. The country escaped lightly, however, from the devastating tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean region in December 2004, with a single reported death from drowning.

Voters rejected the president’s plans for changes to the constitution in a referendum held in November 2005; many observers regarded it as personal criticism of the president rather than rejecting specific proposals in the draft constitution. Kibaki sacked his divided Cabinet shortly afterwards but rejected calls to hold new elections.

Following parliamentary and presidential elections in December 2007 President Kibaki was sworn in for a second term despite international observers claiming the election unfair. Opposition leader Raila Odinga rejected the result claiming that the election had been stolen and calling for an international inquiry. Meanwhile, ethnic violence swept the country with fighting between Kikuyu supporters of Kibaki and other minority groups who favoured the opposition. By early 2008 hundreds of people had been killed with an estimated 250,000 people being displaced having fled their homes to avoid the fighting. At the end of February, after negotiations brokered by the former secretary-general of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, Kibaki reached a power-sharing agreement with Odinga. According to the agreement, Odinga’s Orange Democratic Movement would enter a coalition government, with Odinga taking the newly created post of prime minister.